We can make a difference in our world and be different. Do you want more of God in your life? Are your kids any different than the rest of the kids at school? The real question is, do their friends see them as different? My prayer is that you and your kids will thirst for more of God and that each of you will make a personal decision to become thirstier for God, His direction in your life and that you will realize that unless you are thirsty for God, He isn’t going to be able to give you anything to drink.
What we fill our containers—our hearts—with can make any gifts we have been given or opportunities we have meaningless because they’ll sink to the bottom and lie dormant underneath the useless junk we’ve piled on top.
The sin we’ve let into our lives and our acceptance of all things average will keep us from realizing we need more of God and that we are satisfying our thirst with the wrong kind of drink. How do you stay thirsty? Examine your relationships. Do those who are close to you and your students thirst for the same things as you and they?
Most of us have a best friend. We know what they are going to drink before they even sit down. We can order for them and not even think about it because we know them.
More than that, God knows our favorite foods, favorite drinks, favorite songs and more because He created us. He has a spiritual drink for us that will keep us from ever getting thirsty again. Just like you know your best friend’s favorite drink and what he or she enjoys, God has the drink for you. He knows it will be your favorite—if He can just get you to try it! God doesn’t have the generic. He can’t be imitated. He has the real thing!
What kind of activity leaves us the thirstiest? What you crave when you’re thirsty often depends on the activity you’re doing. Spiritually and physically speaking, activity leads us to an unquenchable thirst; as our activity level increases, so does our need for water.
What happens to your thirst after you play basketball or work outside? Would a tall glass of hot chocolate make you feel better after playing in 100-degree heat?
You might want hot chocolate after skiing for hours in the snow. You definitely would not want that if you had been playing basketball. You would want a sports drink or water instead.
God knows exactly what we thirst for and fill us up with the right thing if we let Him. God wants to be our beverage of choice.
Did you know God designed you to be thirsty? Your body needs water to perform. The majority of your body is fluid. When dehydrated, our bodies cease to function properly. Just as your physical body demands so much water to keep working at the top of its game, your spiritual body also needs something to be at the top of its game. Water is to the body as God is to your spirit. If we don’t have enough of God, we don’t function as we should.
Containers can vary just as we vary. We all come from different backgrounds with different opportunities and gifts. However, the inside of our containers are different because of how they’ve been created and how they’ve been filled. If you go to someone’s house and he or she offers you a beverage, but the person doesn’t have anything you like to drink, yet you’re really thirsty, what do you do? Are you polite and pick one because something is better than nothing?
Do you leave and go elsewhere, which would be rude, but tempting. Do you ask if he or she has anything else, or do you ask for a glass of ice water?
There are some of us who really could care less what we drink. We have no preference because we are used to taking what life throws at us and making the best out of it.
Still, nothing you ever drink will satisfy you because it will leave you with the same feeling—empty, unsatisfied and still thirsty. Only God can quench your thirst, and He is here to give us living water. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled” (
So, how do you know if you’re thirsty and drinking the wrong drink? People become dehydrated when their bodies need water and they ignore it. Dehydration actually can become so severe that we need to be in the hospital. Some of us are in a spiritual hospital now and need an IV of God to save us.
An IV is painful, but the pain actually is what leads to recovery. The pain of the IV doesn’t heal you, but what’s inside the IV heals you! Sometimes it’s painful when we try re-hydrate ourselves, but it is life-saving!
